MyBeautyBunny Jennifer Mathews, TPM’s AllStar Animal Advocates

MyBeautyBunny Jennifer Mathews, TPM’s AllStar Animal Advocates

Jennifer Mathew’s journey from Louisiana State University student, to top cruelty-free beauty blogger is inspiring. She discovered a way to meld her two greatest passions – Beauty and Animal Advocacy. The result is her anti-animal testing beauty blog, MyBeautyBunny.com

Jen’s animal advocacy began while she was still in college. She and her roommate came across some PETA videos on animal testing. “I just sat there and cried. We agreed it was awful and disgusting and that we needed to do something about it.”

Her nascent activism took the form of trying to educate her fellow students. She and her roommate put up PETA fliers around campus. “A lot of people didn’t like that at LSU. People took them down, called us ‘tree-huggers’.”

They persevered. She sought creative ways to spread the word. “Before the days of internet banking, I’d put anti-circus fliers, anti-animal testing fliers, etc., right into bills I was sending off. Just hoping someone on the other end would stop and think.”

Jen, sporting some cruelty-free makeup.

The Road to Beauty Blogging and MyBeautyBunny

After graduating from college with a degree in marketing, Jen began work for credit unions. She stayed in that industry for about 6 years, ending up in LA as a manager. All during that time, her dream was to get a job in the beauty industry. Once in LA, she watched the birth of the blogging industry – particularly beauty blogs. She saw that beauty bloggers were given free samples of products just to write about them. She realized it could be her chance to break into beauty and thought she’d try her hand at it.

Jen knew she needed an angle to help her stand out. And that’s when it hit her. “Duh! Put the two things together. Beauty and anti-animal testing!” Jen decided she would only accept and promote beauty products NEVER tested on animals. MyBeautyBunny was born.

While there are other beauty blogs that advocate for cruelty-free products, Jen’s is one of the most successful. MyBeautyBunny has over 675k Facebook fans. Her Twitter account has almost 50k followers. MyBeautyBunny has large followings on YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest.

Jen and her partner, Tyna

Along with her MyBeautyBunny blog, Jen started her own PR and social media company, TopTierMedia. She works with beauty and fashion brands. (Always cruelty free, of course!)

Being so busy with work, staying up to date on what is truly cruelty-free is a challenge. “You can’t go by a brand’s word, unfortunately. For example, a product might be labeled ‘cruelty-free’ in the States. But, once it’s sold in China, it MUST be tested on animals. That the law there. Also, brands that were once not tested on animals, can be sold to brands that do. Keeping information up to date and accurate is a priority. It takes a lot of work.”

While MyBeautyBunny isn’t strictly vegan, it does have a vegan section. Jen relies on other bloggers to help keep her blog active and up to date. Right now, she has 4 other bloggers working with her. MyBeautyBunny started out as a hobby, but it’s more like a second job for her now.

She’s also friendly with other cruelty-free beauty bloggers, and has high praise for her colleagues. “LogicalHarmony.net is great; The founder of that site, Tashina should be a detective! There’s Phyrra.net. LeapingBunny.org. All of us are friendly and more collaborators, really. We exchange information all the time. We all share a common cause.”

The Pet Matchmaker and Jen hope that one day the beauty industry won’t test on animals, period. Until then, MyBeautyBunny.com is a great resource for cruelty-free beauty and fashion products and a TPM AllStar Animal Advocate!

Nora is a freelance writer, standup comedian and a certified holistic nutrition coach. (Yeah, it's kind of a weird combo.) You can find her on Facebook in both capacities at Eat Well Age Well and Nora Lynch. This is her first foray into editing and writing for a website and she's super excited to be acting as editor-in-chief of The Pet Matchmaker. She lives in Denver, CO with her husband, Phil Palisoul, Professional Comedian
and their rescue dog, Ursa, a German Shepherd Dog, and Darla, a feral kitten rescue.